It took some time to process this.
Taxis in Egypt are an amazing and often troubling experience.
In Cairo, for instance, we wouldn't close the door of the taxi until the driver turned the meter on. If they didn't have a meter, if it didn't work or they would not turn it on, we would open the door, while moving, until they stopped the taxi.
The worse thing is coming into an airport and needing a taxi. There will be a posted rate for the taxi from the airport to downtown, but nobody paid attention to it. (It was probably set five years ago and never updated.)
Even worse is arriving in a city later at night and needing a taxi.
This happened in Alexandria. We arrived around midnight.
Tara and I were prepared. I had checked on the internet and it seemed that 75 to 100 Egyptian pounds was in the range of a decent rate.
Before leaving the safety of the airport, I said to Tara: "Show time."
We got immediately hit by a guy in the airport and not the taxi area that wanted to drive us down for 400 pounds. No way. Moved past him, stepped outside and there are probably 50 taxi drivers trying to get the few people who need a taxis.
Being the male, they came after me. I am offering 100 and there are no takers. They want 400. Eventually, I get a guy down to 250.
In the meantime, Tara moved on through the crowd and found a guy with a "yellow" cab. We read that these were the "official" cabs. She gets the guy to agree to 100 pounds.
She comes to get me and tells me that the guy has agree to 100 pounds. Upon hearing this all of the other taxi drivers go crazy. They basically are trying to prevent him from doing it for 100. My first thought is they are price fixing and he is breaking the cartel.
It should be noted that his taxi was in pretty bad shape. We start thinking that this guy needs the money and they should leave him alone. Basically, we are getting defensive for the guy. So we double down that he can take us.
At this point there seems to be some pow-wow where a group appeals to a higher body/group/individual.
The guy who offered 250 is willing to go to 200, but cannot go lower.
Also, another taxi driver comes up to us in a plaintive voice warning us that we should not go with that taxi driver. We sense the message, but don't completely receive it in the moment.
After some action to get doors open and closed, we take off with the 100 pound taxi driver. Bags are in our laps. It is small. Dinky is more appropriate.
We go about 100 yards and he pulls over and says he agreed to 200, at which we pretty much explode. One of the things about negotiating prices for taxis is once a price is agreed to, then there is a solemn pact to perform at that price. First time we have seen someone so blatantly violate this rule.
We should note that by this time in our trip in Egypt, we had developed an approach where we negotiate a price hard and then give a generous tip. If you don't, then when you give a normal tip, you end up either having to negotiate the tip or end up with the driver being irritated that we didn't tip him properly. The negotiate hard creates an expectation that he isn't making much and the generous tip changes the dynamic where he feels he came out well.
Anyway, we tell this cab driver to pull over and we start opening the door. At that point, we agree to 120.
Off we go again. We now realize with clarity that we are riding in a death trap. We understand the warning from the other taxi driver that we should not go with him. We recognize in his expression that he was feeling guilty that he is somewhat responsible for out impending deaths by letting us go in that cab.
We go about another kilometer and we come upon a booth where the taxi driver pays some type of airport usage fee. He tries to get us to pay. No way.
Off we go again.
At this point, it is important to note that in Egypt there are two ways to control traffic, neither of which involves having customary police speed traps. One is the speed bump and the other is what I will call a speed cut or ditch. This is where they cut about 10 inches into the road so that there is a 3 inch deep ditch in the road. Also, these bumps and ditches go across the whole road, otherwise, the drivers go into the oncoming lanes to avoid the bumps and ditches.
What you see is drivers, and especially taxi drivers, driving all across the road to go over the bump/ditch at the least intrusive spot, including the shoulder. They speed up, then they brake, swerving across the road avoiding other cars and trucks. The bigger the vehicle, the slower they are in going over the bumps and ditches.
The road we are on is this beautiful new highway from the airport to Alexandria, except that it has all these ditches cut into the concrete. Whenever he can, it is the pedal to the floor. Then it is swerving and braking to find the best spot to go over the ditch. Lots of traffic involved in this dance.
At one point, he reaches back across Tara's lap to close her door. He does the same at some point for the passenger side door.
We continue along. It takes a good 45 minutes to get to Alexandria.
We have no idea how fast he was going. Tara noted the speedometer was stuck at zero. I have learned that when going 40 miles per hour on a bike it seems like you are going extremely fast. With this taxi, we might have been going only 35 miles per hour, given the sorry state the taxi was in, but it felt like 80 miles per hour.
Just when we think it cannot get any worse, it starts to rain lightly. At this point my initial thought is how bald his tires must be. This coincides with these highway ramps going into the air. Needless to say, there are no ditches on the ramps slowing his speed.
After an eternity, we start coming into Alexandria. He tries on two occasions to take us to another hotel, but we note that we have already paid for our hotel, which seems to satisfy him.
We finally arrive at the hotel and in the middle of the street, he demands 200 pounds again. At this point the argument has gone into the hotel. It is about 1 am. He is demanding 200 pounds and says that is what was agreed to.
I note that you told my wife 100 and before all of the other taxi drivers he acknowledge the 100 and that we agree in the taxi to give him 20 more.
It is getting really heated. At one point I accuse him of calling my wife a liar.
The hotel owner at this point is saying go ahead and pay him 50 more. Noting he is a poor man. He also notes that he pays 400 when he goes to the airport. Not helpful.
At this point, we are still livid.
I finally agree to the owner that for him I will pay the taxi driver 50 more. At which point, I told the taxi driver to get the F$%#@ out of there. This caused things to flare up a bit, but the phrasing was not F%$#$ You, which would probably have been fighting words.
After the taxi driver left, I said to the hotel people: "Anna Amreekee, lehrkin, anna Younani." Which means, I am American, but I am Greek. We all laughed.
Here was a taxi driver that drove us around Giza and down to Saqqara and back. Whole day. We had him join us at the sights, which he had never seen.
